Artisanal Sudoku, Volume 232

1. Mixed Use

• Normal sudoku rules apply (fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each).

• Clones: the blue shaded regions contain the same digits in the same relative positions.

• Arrows: the sum of the digits along an arrow is equal to the digit in the connected circle, and these digits can repeat if allowed by other rules.

• Digits in cells separated by a white dot are consecutive.

• Digits in cells separated by a black dot have a 1:2 ratio.

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 3/10

Play online: SudokuPad

New to variant sudoku? Check out these beginner-friendly guides to cages and other popular rulesets.

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2. Setback

• Normal sudoku rules apply (fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each), and all clues are standard.

• Region sum lines: box borders divide each blue line into segments with the same sum.

• Quadruple circles: a digit inside a white circle appears in at least one of the four cells surrounding that circle.

• Very rough difficulty estimate: 5/10

Play online: SudokuPad

3. Forty-Four

• Normal sudoku rules apply (fill each row, column, and 3x3 box with the digits 1-9 once each), and all clues are standard.

• Dynamic fog: correctly placed digits clear fog from their own cell and possibly other cells.

• Cages: the sum of the digits inside each cage is equal to the small number in the top left corner, and digits cannot repeat within a cage. Cage sums are in the left-most cell in the highest row reached by the cage, and all cage sums are given.

• Renban lines: purple lines contain a non-repeating set of consecutive digits in any order. Lines do not branch or overlap.

• Very rough difficulty estimates: 10/10, 7/10

Play online: SudokuPad | version without fog

Extra clues: SudokuPad | version without fog

Note: the difficulty ratings are for the versions with fog. The versions without fog should be even more approachable—which is usually the case, of course, but I think it’s especially so for this puzzle.

For those new to fog puzzles, it’s important to know that cages work exactly as you would expect them to in the absence of fog. So, if the top-left corner of a grid looks like this:

The following things about the 25-cage are known:

• it doesn’t include any cells in row one, because if it did the sum would not be in r2c1, it would be in the left-most cage cell in row one

• it definitely includes r2c2, because there is not a cage boundary on the right side of r2c1

• it doesn’t include r3c1, because the cage boundary at the bottom of r2c1 indicates that the adjacent cell is not in the cage

Some other puzzles I enjoyed this week:

• Oil, Water, Glyph, by Blobz

• Heliotrope, by Major314

• A Bouquet of Complements, by RockyRoer

I also wanted to mention two truly epic puzzles that came out in the last week, neither of which I’ve had time to solve in full:

• Memories of a Far Off Land, by Michael Lefkowitz

  Michael (aka juggler) is a master at the instructionless genre, where discovering the rules is part of the puzzle, and this is a fantastic example—with beautiful visual design too.

• RAT RUN 40: The Big One, by Marty Sears
  I try to only recommend puzzles that haven’t been featured on Cracking the Cryptic, so the Rat Runs have pretty much always been disqualified for that reason, but the entire series has been amazing (click the link above and scroll down for previous entries). This is the last one, and if you don’t feel like solving it, you can watch the over-five-hour (!) CtC video instead.

Thanks for subscribing to Artisanal Sudoku! Feedback is always appreciated, just leave a comment, reach out on Bluesky, or reply to this email. If you liked these puzzles, you probably know someone else who’d like them too, so please spread the word. If you’re interested in submitting a puzzle, click here for more information. And if you want to try more of my puzzles—many of which are tougher than the ones you’ll find here—check out my page on Logic Masters Deutschland.

This week’s meta-description:
This week: the 10/10 difficulty rating makes a rare appearance.

For premium subscribers, hints and two more bonus puzzles are below.

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